WHO KILLED BELLA WRIGHT?

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 194, 14 August 1920, Page 19

WHO KILLED BELLA WRIGHT?

MURDER MYSTERY DEEPENS.

TIH'H 'HSTOBE?* HICTCIjB. OAS-E." (From Our Special Correspondent. , ! LONDON, June 13. The murder mystery knoTvn Tor practically n year as the "Green Bipjole Case" is a mystery deeper still since the acquittal of .Rnnnld Light, who was . last Friday found not guilty of the slaying erf Bella Wright, a mill girl, on n lonely road near Leicester on fie evening of July 4, lOl'.>. The unfortunate girl .was found dead n a lane at Long Stretton. near her own bicycle. At first it was thought that she had collapsed whilst riding, and that d»ath was due to the fall from her machine, hut n further examination disclosed a. i-ullet wound in her head, -ivhich was undoubtedly Ihe prime cause of death. Then village gossip somehow put the police into pos session of certain facts ' which suggested that a man riding a bicycle enamelled in irreen had been seen in Bella 'Wright's company n very short time before her dead body was discovered. Ensued a most painstaking search for somebody of the male persuasion possessed -of a green bicycle who had been, or could have "been, bicycling in the ncLslltiourbood of Leicester on the fnt at evening. Though preen enamelled bicycles are not plentiful, t'ley nre not exactly rarities, and na'nrally an object of suspicion, Tvh-ilst many were called npnti to furnish prooTs that they were -not within hail of the scene of the crime on the evening of July -Ith. We do not know hrfw tunny men wore nc\ ually

"hailed-up" in the procpss of elimination: nil v.p know Is flint -for ten months the police wprc completely baffled, and that so far as the pu'lilic "was conrprnpil the "Orceo r.icyelp •Cafe" had hppn relegated to the limbo of thinzs forgotten, an<l rhe line and fry for thp guilty party liail completely flipd away, when, 'by n freakish chancp. part of ihp frame-work of ft giecn bicycle was momentarily lifted out of thp ran.nl Tiie bargeman returned later and flslpil It up. Then a more careful search was made, and. with the otbpr inlsslnc parts of the bicycle, there ivns discovered the holster of n Service rpvolvor. ami bullets Identical Tvith one which was found near the dea.l girl. The bicycle was identified by Us trade number, marked in an inner tube, and its ownership •was traced to Light, a mathematical master In a wellknown school. The bullet which had slain the girl fifed Light's revolver. His conduct at' home, according to the testimony of the servant; hU putting away the bicycle in an upper room, and his subsequent, disposal of it. all seemed to point to his guilt. T-le was idpntifipd as having been in thp girl's company: two other yonngpr girls also idantlfie.l him as having spoken to them on the came afternoon. But, -what motive was there for the crime? Th<re was no sign of attempted outrage. The AttornpyGeneral suegpstpd that t.hp jury should lpflvp consifl prrjtinns of mot ivn out of tno question. Bill evidently the jury took the view that men do not commit murder without motive, anrt here they could find : none whatever. iT.ight's defence surprised pvprybody. the judge included, lie frankly admitted that the bicycle was his, and that he had filed oft 'the number where It was plainly visible. His case was that the hue and cry for the man with the green bicycle, find the general assumption that this man "balance (already, perhaps, disturbed 'by Army experiences), and frightened him into secrecy, when he ought to have gone to the police and told them all he knew. He had kept silence, he said, partly from fear and partly to spare his mother, who was Iα a very delloato state of health, the shod: of his being implicated in any way in the tragedy. He admitted being in the girl's company, but said that he had never seen her before that day (which seems to have been perfectly true), and he left her sound and well. "Could an innocent man," asked the judge, "behave as prisoner had done after the day of the crime 1 " No one can he sure how a guilty man will behave, and how an innocent, and in scores of cases Innocent men have acted, precisely as one would expect the gnilty to act. It Is partly a question of temperament, and he would be n very harsh judge of human nature who would refuse to believe that an innocent •man of a certain temperament, seeing that suspicion was fixed by the police and the public upon the owner of a green bicycle, and knowing that he could actually be proved to, have been with the girl, might take what seemed a short cut to clear himself of suspicion. Moreover, the evidence as regards the bullet and its effect if flred. us suggested by tho prosecution, at short range, was unsatisfactory. According to men who have Been all too often the effects of an ordinnry service "45." the girl's death wound, as described by tho medical authorities, was far too inconspicuous to have been inflicted by one. and they account for th« bullet found near the body as one dropped there accidentally, or maybe by the murderer with a view to deliberately mislead. In any case, ex-soldiers point out that it : would be just as foolisl. to convict British | soldiers of shooting the Koyal Irish Constabulary because wounds were made with -ROR's" as to convict I,lght of the murder of Bella Wright 'because his revolver was a ••4.V of which there must be some scores of thousands in private possession to-day In England. I.ijcht was certainly the last person known to have been in the company of the deceased girl on the fata! day. He was with her a quarter of an hour before her death, and the case ag-ainst him was undoubtedly much darkened by the deception which he practised in concealing and making away with his bicycle. But, was the jury in a position to say that there was no doubt 'but that lie committed the murder? The fact that he was the last person in her company was clearly not sufficient ground for establishing his gulu. in the complete absence of any known motive. >'nr was there anything in Light's previous Tecord which would point to him as a person likely to commit such a crime. The fart that probably most exercised tile minds of the jury was «.he deception to which he resorted. Did this betray a guilty conscience, or could, it be satisfactorily j explained on the hypothesis that he feared the circumstances surrounding his brier association with ißeila Wright would provide j a net of circumstantial evidence strong enough to hold him untilithe hangman ha»u clone bis .lob. The Jur.- tool; -three hours to weigh the "pros and -on?." and finally brought in a verdict of "not guilty," a findrng which, he it said, teemed to meet with the very general approval of the thousands who had mustered in the vicinity of tne .session house at Leicester to await the result.